Dikhyaa Mohanty 
Manoj Kumar Mishra, Principal Secretary of Electronics & Information Technology (E&IT) Department, Government of Odisha, on Thursday unveiled the HDFC Bank’s E-Rupee (Central Bank Digital Currency) in Bhubaneswar.
This is for the first time that the digital currency has been launched in Bhubaneswar to empower the small merchants in the city to digitize their payments through CBDC and reduce the cash payment hassles faced by them.
Bhubaneswar is one of the four cities where CBDC will be rolled initially by RBI. HDFC Bank has joined hands with the RBI to implement the project. The bank has on-boarded small merchants on E-Rupee platform.
With the developments in the economy and the evolution of the payments system, the form and functions of money has changed over time, and it will continue to influence the future course of currency.
The concept of money has experienced evolution from Commodity to Metallic Currency to Paper Currency to Digital Currency. The changing features of money are defining new financial landscape of the economy. Further, with the advent of cutting-edge technologies, digitalization of money is the next milestone in the monetary history. Advancement in technology has made it possible for the development of new form of money viz. Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).
